“The eye is the lamp of the body”

Read Luke 11:33-36

.

This saying about not hiding a lighted lamp (33) is used by Jesus with three different applications. Luke has already included it after the parable of the sower to make clear that God would not deliberately obscure the truth (8:16-17; Mk.4:21-22). Matthew omits it there, having already referred to Jesus using it to illustrate that disciples who have received God’s light must let his light shine for others to see (Mt.5:14-16).

.

The Sermon on the Mount also includes another use of the same saying and that’s the passage found here in Luke, about the eye being the lamp of the body (34; Mt.6:22-23). Just as physical light – received by the eye – enables us to see what we’re doing, so metaphorically we need to be sure that what goes into us spiritually is light rather than darkness (35).

.

If the eye is “bad” (literally evil, the same word as in “deliver us from evil” Mt.6:13) then we won’t be able to “live as children of light” (Eph.5:8-9). But by God’s light shining within us, our whole lives can be “full of light” (36; 2 Cor.4:6; Ps.18:28). So we need to keep our eyes “good”, literally single. By single-mindedly focusing on God’s good light, we’ll be kept spiritually healthy.